Company Press Release
May 2, 2000
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Governor Pedro Rossello joined Puerto Rico Tourism Company Executive Director Jose A.
Corujo and Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce Xavier Romeu today in an on-site ceremony marking groundbreaking
for the new Americas World Trade District, a $600+ million dollar public/private development that represents one
of the largest waterfront urban districts undertaken in the United States. The project, slated to open in late
2002, is also one of the most significant urban redevelopments in Puerto Rico's history, and is centered around
the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
PROJECT VISION
The new Puerto Rico Convention Center is part of a long-term strategy to expand the economic development impact
of the island's tourism industry, while also positioning Puerto Rico internationally as a business destination.
This strategy is already a success - the project has already generated private investment in Puerto Rico that exceeds
its public investment. LCOR Incorporated, a major U.S. developer of such mega-projects as Terminal Four of Kennedy
International Airport in New York, is currently in negotiations to be the developer of the headquarters hotel,
World Trade Center and entertainment/retail complex that comprise the major privately developed components of the
Americas District. LCOR's investment in Puerto Rico to develop this project is expected to significantly exceed
the government investment of $300 million.
PROJECT BENEFITS
Jose A. Corujo, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, the agency spearheading development of the
entire Americas District noted, ``By building the Americas District, we will definitely be shaking things up for
Puerto Rico, generating dramatic results and changing our position vis-a-vis our current tourism and business competitors.
We are entering a new level of the game and playing in a new league. The Puerto Rico Convention Center will enable
us to attract major conventions and meetings - representing one of the best growth opportunities for Puerto Rico
to significantly expand our tourism base. Projections developed for the Puerto Rico Tourism Company conservatively
estimate 242,000 attendees to all events at the convention center in Year One of operations, increasing to 413,000
by 2007. Many of these attendees will never have been to Puerto Rico before and we will have the opportunity to
expose them to our leisure product. These attendees will generate new hotel room nights conservatively estimated
to start out at 128,000 in 2003 and almost double to 206,000 by 2007.''
``The Americas World Trade District is an economic development project - one with vast potential,'' Corujo continued.
``The convention center itself will generate major economic impacts - direct and indirect - creating many jobs
(1,975 on-site in Year One alone) , generating significant delegate spending and dramatically expanding the convention
and meeting support industry on the island. One need only consider two statistics together to get a sense of the
size of the impact. The first is that the industry average is $341 spending per day per delegate. Place this statistic
within the context of 242,000 attendees expected in Year One - and you have an impressive annual figure that represents
only a portion of the direct spending, not to mention additional spending by the associations and convention sponsors,
to say nothing of the spin off indirect spending created by growth of the convention and meeting support industry.''
Estimated direct annual spending generated by the convention center is $90 million annually, with an additional
$130 million in indirect and induced annual spending. Permanent jobs created on site in Phase I are estimated to
be 1,975, with a total of 3,200 new, full-time direct, indirect and induced permanent jobs in the first phase.
THE AMERICAS WORLD TRADE DISTRICT
The area is anchored by the Puerto Rico Convention Center at the Americas World Trade District, located on the
110 acre Isla Grande site that was formerly the San Juan Naval Station and Coast Guard base. The Convention Center
will be developed in three phases, with Phase I including a 150,000 S.F. exhibit hall, 40,000 S.F. of state-of-the-art
meeting space and a 40,000 S.F. ballroom. In Phase I, the surrounding Americas World Trade District will create
a lively mix of uses, including an adjacent headquarters hotel & casino; the Puerto Rico World Trade Center;
PRISMA (the children's museum); offices and residential units. Plans for the Americas World Trade District are
centered around the Grand Canal, a new water element which will extend from the San Antonio Channel into the District,
creating views of the Atlantic Ocean, Condado Lagoon and San Juan Bay. The environment will be a lush urban one
with parks, landscaped open space, and abundant vegetation. Other planned elements of future phases of the Americas
District include a second hotel; additional residential units; the second tower of the World Trade Center; 250,000
S.F. of office space; a total of 8,000 parking spaces; and two expansions of the Puerto Rico Convention Center,
each with another 150,000 S.F. of exhibit hall, with additional meeting, banquet and support areas. And this new,
ultra modern development will be strategically located a stone's throw away from the 500 year-old historic district
of Old San Juan.
A new web page for the new Convention Center will be available in about two weeks for anyone seeking more information.
The site address will be: PRConventioncenter.com
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Contact:
Puerto Rico Tourism Company
Carlos Toledo, 787/724-2800